Chapter 5

CHAPTER5

Iawoke with a gasp before I realized where I was. Eletta was already in my room busying herself with what looked like my breakfast against the small desk.

“Are you all right?”

“Yes, sorry.” I sat up in the bed and pushed my wayward hair out of my face. “I had forgotten where I was for a moment.”

I could see the pity in her eyes, and I swallowed it down quickly before I allowed myself to drown in it. Her pity would be no use to either of us.

“He is a great man, you know.” She lifted a lid off the tray before setting it aside. The smell of warm pastries and fruit hit me instantly and caused my stomach to growl.

Her words angered me because I had lost countless hours of sleep last night thinking of how he was no such thing.

“I do not believe him to be so.” I swung my legs off the bed and stood before grabbing the small throw and wrapping it around myself.

“But you hardly know him.” She softly shook her head. “I have worked in the palace for several years, and I have always known him to be noble even when situations require him to be ruthless.”

I couldn’t stop the small scoff that fell from my lips. Her gaze flew up to meet mine, and I actually felt bad.

“I do not mean to insult you, Eletta, as I have only known the prince since he arrived in Starless yesterday, but he seems to lack the decorum that you speak of.”

Her brows scrunched together as I made my way toward the desk. “The crowned prince came to Starless?”

Shit.She was talking of that prince. “Oh. No.” I quickly shook my head. “I thought you were referring to his brother.”

“You met Prince Evren?” Her voice held a touch of alarm.

“I did. He was the first fae I met at the cleave.”

She looked away from me, and her fingers clenched tightly against her skirts as she adjusted them.

“Please, Eletta. Tell me what you’re thinking. If this”—I motioned my hand back and forth between us—“is to work, then I need us to trust one another.”

“Of course, ma’am.” Her eyes slid to the door. “It’s only that I do not wish to speak ill of the Achlys family.”

I stepped closer to her and lowered my voice. “It’s just us here.”

She nodded even though she didn’t owe me an ounce of her trust. “You should stay away from Prince Evren.”

A chill ran down my spine at her warning.

“He is everything that his brother is not. Brutal and merciless. I hadn’t realized that he had yet come back from the Sidra border.”

“The Sidra border? The Achlyses send their prince to patrol the vampyre border?”

“We shouldn’t speak of this.” She pulled out the chair from the desk and motioned me forward. “You should eat. I’m not sure what the day holds for you.”

I sat even though my mind was racing with the information she had just given me. The way she described Evren was the opposite of what he had shown me yesterday. That was until I realized who he truly was.

“Am I to see the royal family today?” I took a bite of a sweet melon and moaned as the flavor hit my tongue. I hadn’t tasted fruit with such sweetness in years.

“They haven’t called upon you yet, but I would presume so.” Her voice shook, and she fidgeted behind me.

“Until then, could you give me a tour?” I hated how helpless I felt here, and not knowing the palace grounds only intensified that.

“Of course, ma’am.” She smiled, and I quickly ate my breakfast before she could change her mind.

She helped me dress in a long silk dress that was as beautiful as it was impractical, but she had balked when I had suggested wearing something of my own. She had at least allowed me to wear my hair down when she had seen how uncomfortable I was with even a sliver of my back exposed.

She led me from the room, and I followed her every step as she explained every room that we passed.

“This is the Hall of Kings.” She was droning on about history I hardly cared about. Instead, I was mentally mapping every turn, every room.

Portraits hung along the wall, all of them men who looked like they thirsted for power almost more than the one before them. Until we came to the current king of Citlali. It should have been his wife’s face who stared down at me from that wall.

“This is where Prince Gavril’s portrait will hang once he is crowned king.”

She glanced back at me, but I was still staring up at the blank wall. I was overwhelmed with the thought of the future king of Citlali’s portrait would hang there. My future husband.

“He’ll make a handsome king. Don’t you think?”

“Yes. Of course.” There was no denying it. Gavril Achlys was beyond handsome. Everything about him felt regal and impressive. He was nothing as I thought he would be.

“The library is just this way.” We turned down the hallway and through an arched door that led to the low-lit space.

Rows and rows of books reached from floor to ceiling, and the room seemed to break off even more as the books continued.

“This is beautiful.” I ran my hand over a few spines as I explored. I had read my fair share of books, but I had never seen anything like this. There were more books here than I could read in a lifetime.

“It is. This library holds all of our histories including your own,” Eletta said so absently, but my gaze slammed into hers.

“There are histories of the Starblessed here?”

She nodded before fidgeting with her dress. “I have seen Prince Evren reading them before.”

That news shocked me. What did he care about the history of my people?

“Can you leave me here, Eletta?” I looked around me and tried to give her a convincing smile. “I would like to read for a bit. You can retrieve me if I am called upon.”

“Certainly.” She bowed her head before quickly departing and leaving me with my thoughts.

The only history I had ever been told of the Starblessed was what those in my town had known. Legends passed down from one generation to the other, and most of the information was lacking.

My heart raced as I skimmed through the titles on the shelves. There were books of kings and fae legends. Tales of past wars and alliances.

But I stopped when I read the gold words along a black leather-bound book. The Rise and Fall of Sidra. I slid the book from the shelf and flipped it open quickly.

This was where Evren had been stationed. A prince of Citlali occupying the border of his enemy.

And from what I had been told, they were a formidable enemy indeed.

I dropped into a chair near the small fireplace and flipped through the fading pages. There were drawings depicting the vampyres of Sidra. But to me, they looked so similar to the fae; the lack of sharp ears the only real difference I noted.

But then I came to the page that told of the way a vampyre fed. My eyes prowled over the words quickly as I took in every bit of information I could. The legends I had been told and that of this text were differing.

I had thought a vampyre must feed daily, but according to the book in front of me, they could go years without tasting blood on their lips. But a lack of blood also meant lack of power. With every day they abstained, their power grew weaker.

But it was the drawing on the next page that made my breath leave me in a rush. It depicted a male vampyre with his teeth exposed and ready to sink into the neck of the woman in front of him. She didn’t look frightened from the drawing. She looked euphoric. She looked…

“I hadn’t realized you had such an interest in the vampyres of Sidra.”

I slammed the book closed as I heard his voice and brought my trembling hand to my chest. “You startled me.”

Evren was leaning against the doorway, his shoulder pressed into the wood and his legs crossed at the ankles. I had no idea how long he had been there.

“I didn’t mean to.” He ran his hand absently over his bare forearm where his shirt was rolled up. “You were enraptured in that text.”

I pressed the book into my chest as if that would save me from him knowing exactly what I was reading. “Am I not allowed to read it?”

“Of course, you are. I just find your interest in them curious.”

“From what I’ve overheard, my curiosity is a mere necessity. You yourself guard the border. Do you not?”

“I do.” He was watching me so closely, and I hated the way it made me feel. I shifted in my seat and pressed my thighs together to stop the small ache that started there at the sight of him. His gaze immediately tracked the movement.

“You lied to me.”

I expected him to look back up at me defensively, but he didn’t. Instead, he did a slow perusal of my body before his eyes finally met mine again. “When did I lie?”

My fingers tightened around the book, and I stood angrily. “When you told me that you were one of the royal guards.”

I walked back to the shelf and gently placed the book back into its place.

“I am a royal guard.”

His words made me press my eyes closed before I turned back to face him. “You are a prince.”

“And what?” He cocked his head to the side as he pushed off the wall. “If you had known, you would have kneeled before me to show your loyalty?”

My chest heaved as he closed the space between us. “No.” I shook my head and tried to remind myself of who he was. “I will never get on my knees for you.”

“Ah, princess.” He stepped into my space, closer than was proper. He reached forward, slipping a piece of my hair between his fingers before he slowly twisted it in his hold. “I would give just about anything to see you on your knees.”

“That will never happen.” I sounded breathless, and Evren knew. His mouth lifted in a wicked smile as he stared down at my mouth.

“I wouldn’t dare insinuate that the future queen of Citlali would ever do such a thing.” He pushed forward again, and his hands moved to the bookshelves on either side of my head. He leaned down until I had no option but to look at him. “But gods, I can imagine it. The way you would look staring up at me, the way I would make you beg.”

My breath rushed out of me as my stomach tightened with his depraved words, and I knew he could feel it against his lips.

“My brother’s betrothed on her knees before me, ready to pledge her allegiance with her perfect mouth.”

I jolted away from him, and my back hit the bookcase. That only made him smile harder.

“I would…”

“You would what, princess?” His gaze darkened as he leaned forward and ran his nose along the shell of my ear. I shuddered against him, my mark sparking to life in a way that consumed me. “You would beg the brother of the future king to give you exactly what you crave? The things he couldn’t dare give you.”

“Evren.” I said his name in warning, but it came out as a plea.

He breathed me in slowly before finally pulling away. “Prince Evren. Until you are queen, you should address me as such.”

“You’re an ass.” My voice shook with anger and need.

“As I’ve been told.” He ran his hand across his jaw as he looked at me, and I wasn’t foolish enough to miss the hunger in his eyes. And that one glimpse of his desire made me feel as if I was starving. “My brother has asked for you to meet him for a lunch in the gardens.”

I swallowed hard at the mention of the crowned prince. “And you’re just now telling me this?”

“My apologies, Starblessed.” He dipped into a deep bow. “It seemed to slip my mind.”